Robert H. Bunzel

• In 2022, Rob was co-lead counsel for a significant California healthcare system defendant in a 5-week antitrust class action jury trial in the Northern District of California, at the close of which the nine-member jury returned a unanimous defense verdict, finding that Rob’s client did not tie its hospital services together, and did not force insurance companies to contract with the system on allegedly anticompetitive terms. The certified class of three million California residents and businesses had sought $411 million in damages which would have been trebled under the antitrust laws. The jury never reached the issue of damages, however, instead finding no violation of law.
• In 2021, Rob won dismissal of all claims against his client, a former Prime Minister of Egypt, in a high-profile Alien Tort Claim case, by proving up complex diplomatic immunity given the client’s later status as a representative to the IMF in New York. Rob has deep experience in this area, having represented former heads of state of the Philippines and South Korea in such cases.
• In 2021, on behalf of a global law firm client, Rob won a $2 million award in arbitration against an insurance company and succeeded in recovering interest and attorneys' fees for his client.
• In 2021 and 2022, Rob tried two probate cases on behalf of Trustees of a $2 billion estate, defeating all claims asserted by a stepdaughter seeking to share in the estate.
• In 2015-2019, on behalf of one of San Francisco’s leading antitrust lawyers, Rob successfully caused dismissal of a lawsuit seeking a multimillion-dollar fee split after successfully challenging out-of-state arbitration over the claim and following related litigation in Maryland district court.
• In 2019, Rob represented a large Northern California healthcare system in an antitrust case brought by the California AG and a certified class, which settled after Rob over two days selected a San Francisco jury.
• In 2017, Rob tried a nonprofit case on behalf of the spouse of the founder of one of California’s largest private foundations related to the direction of the foundation’s mission, resulting in a negotiated settlement.
• In July 2014, Rob obtained an extraordinary writ from the State Court of Appeal, dismissing with prejudice a suit with $4 billion exposure in a data breach case in the healthcare industry. Sutter Health v. Superior Court (2014) 227 Cal.App.4th 1546, review denied Oct. 16, 2014.
• In 2014, Rob finalized a settlement with six counties and the California District Attorneys Association concluding a 5-year investigation into his client’s biomass (wood to energy) waste streams at three California facilities.
• In 2011, Rob secured an $18 million judgment for a major bank’s former investment advisors, and in 2015 he obtained a $7.4 million award for financial advisors suing a different bank, both of which were plaintiff-side class actions.
• In 2010, Rob won a $2 million plaintiff’s jury verdict in a municipal bond financing case.
• Also in 2010, Rob achieved a defense verdict in an 8-week civil antitrust monopolization trial where the plaintiffs asked the jury for $34 million.
• In 2008, Rob cross-examined the government’s star witness over several days leading to the successful defense of a U.S. executive in a criminal antitrust trial where the government had obtained seventeen guilty pleas for international price-fixing from other defendants. Defending “The Last Man Standing”: Trench Lessons from the 2008 Criminal Antitrust Trial, United States v. Swanson (June 2008), www.antitrustsource.com.
• In 2007, Rob won a $4.85 million verdict in a breach of contract case.
• From 2002 to 2007, Rob represented an SEC Receiver and Bankruptcy Trustee in litigation concerning the San Diego PinnFund Ponzi scheme, which resulted in greater than $100 million in recoveries for the injured investors and creditors.
• Rob has successfully represented engineers employed by the nation’s largest hazardous waste facility and obtained a landmark ruling regarding recoverable costs in superfund litigation, which ruling was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Rob represented the San Francisco 49ers in their 1999-2001 ownership dispute and in other player and team matters.

Rob has lectured for the Practicing Law Institute and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers on the subject of internal corporate investigations and international discovery. He has presented on panels for the American Bar Association Litigation Committee on environmental litigation.

• Courtroom warrior: The combative career of William Travers Jerome
  San Francisco Daily Journal (May 2020)
• The man to see was Edward Bennett Williams
  San Francisco Daily Journal (December 2019)
• Lessons learned from ‘The Trial of Jack Ruby’
  San Francisco Daily Journal (June 2019)
• Sometimes It Pays to Opt for a Jury in Business Disputes
  Litigation Magazine, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Summer 2019), at 12
• Lawyers: Put down the electronic legal menu for just a moment
  San Francisco Daily Journal (October 2018)
• How to Win the “Bet Your Company” September 2010
• Defending “The Last Man Standing”: Trench Lessons from the 2008 Criminal Antitrust Trial – United States v. Swanson
  www.antitrustsource.com (June 2008)